Flexible Good Food Eating

Just a dump of photos of the sorts of things I’ve been eating mostly, lately. Nope: not particularly Paleo, not particularly low carb, not particularly high carb, not particularly high fat, not particularly low fat. Etc. It’s not particularly anything at all.

Rather, at different times, places and circumstances, it’s one or more of all of those because it’s simply…omnivorous.

I will add that achieving the dietary flexibility to have highly satiating starches lately has virtually eliminated all desire or practice of going out and getting some crap sandwich or burger—or even Taco Bell.

I saved that pasta dish for last because not only was it my last meal (last evening), but I wanted to relay how it went. Since doing all the stuff with Resistant Starch and the Soil-Based Probiotics, I’ve done a few experiments both in terms of blood glucose (reported here) and heartburn tolerance, since others have reported such improvements over time. A couple of weeks back, I had some pizza & beer, sure to give me heartburn. Nothing. This was test number two, a pasta dish, probably the worst in terms of getting heartburn. In addition, I had half of that deviled egg app and one Perfect Manhattan, stirred, not shaken.

I waited for the inevitable nuclear heartburn to arrive (especially in combo with hard liquor), but it never did. Does that mean I intend to go out and have pasta regularly? Nope, no need. Because, since things are flexible enough now, I can simply have gluten free pasta which I’ve found to be pretty damn good, and I can have a few sandwiches every week, also on gluten free. The bottom line? Since adding this degree of flexibility, I am far, far less likely to go anywhere and eat something cheap and crappy.

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IDK Richard that looks an awful lot like a “whole foods” diet. I’m not sure such a thing can really catch on since it doesn’t have a catchy moniker, and anything so straightforward can’t be “the answer.” Something must be missing…

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Sorry if you’ve already mentioned this but have you tried making (soaked) chick pea flour flatbreads (known in the Mediterranean as socca) – a yummy alternative to bread now that we’re embracing legumes again?

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Besan flour= chick pea flour. It is actually made from black chick peas which are much better than garbanzo beans because of their lower glycemic index and excellent effects on post prandial blood glucose levels.
dr. Grace clued me in on this . she has an article on her site somewhere… huge difference between black chickpeas and garbanzo beans. if you go to an Indian grocery store you can also get whole black chick peas…they are best cooked using a pressure cooker.

About GMO=bad. As of now most genetic modifications are not made to benefit the end consumer. The customers of biotechnology companies are farmers (whose customers are food processing corporations etc.), and most of them don’t care about the end consumer either: they want a product that can fight (kill) insects, as well as other natural organisms – called names like weeds etc. This includes either equipping plants with additonal toxins inside, or making them resistant to more externally delivered toxins than natural organisms are able tolerate. And customers of farmes want long storage life, standardarized sizes and looks etc. (not compatible with biology).

It’s not that gentic modification can’t be used for end consumer benefit, but as market forces work now this is not what is being done. There have been few attempts, but these failed – like golden rice. Besides right now consumers are into “natural” products, so even if someone finally produced a GMO plant beneficial to the end consumer they would fail in the market because of the bad name that current extra-toxins GMO brought to the whole modification concept.

Christopher. Yep, that’s it. Injera. The traditional ones are made with teff, which is gluten free. This restaurant had the all teff ad well as the teff and barley.

It’s kind of an acquired skill to eat it. First, you have the injera the food sits on, then you have rolled up injera on the side and you tear off pieces and grab food with it like that. You can also eat the soaked stuff at the bottom (like sopping up gravy with white bread, basically) or not. But the point is, it won’t be soggy if you use the injera on the side.

The big advantage is that it’s sponginess is very light so that while you may have gone through 2-3 injera eating your meal, it’s nothing like it would have been with something like flour tortillas.

We can get Injera made with barley and teff at the convenience store. But I have not seen teff only even in the part of town populated by Ethiopian stores. The barley/teff combo is not compatible with, at least, my digestive tract. Major bloating.

The restaurant you went to must be more accommodating to American tastes because here anything with beef is chopped into small cubes which are tough and chewy. The collard greens are really good but the meat parts are definitely not. I gave up on Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto a while ago. It was interesting back in the early 90s but they have their dedicated clientele so don’t feel the need to modify anything. Their vegetarian choices would be great if the Injera were all teff. But teff is expensive and barley is cheap as dirt.

This place was packed, and it was quite early for dinner. We had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. Good thing we came when we did, because by the time we got seated there were like 10 or more people waiting outside. So definitely popular.

I asked the guy about the injera and he said they have both and would be happy to serve teff only. Apparently, teff only is fermented and that’s definitely the impression I got because it was like sourdough bread. It’s the after effects that convinced me. Even with the two beers, no bloating no heartburn. What I love too about injera is it seems you’re eating a ton if it, but it consists of almost nothing so I had no impression of having eaten too much which is typically the case with me anytime I’m using a tortilla as a spoon.

I made injera with just teff flour, and it turned out great. It was pretty labor-intensive – ferment a starter for a few days, ferment the batter for a few more days, then steam one by one in a pan, like making crepes. It was good, but not really worth the trouble. Good ol’ Bob’s Red Mill makes teff flour, natch.

Yep, so many of the traditional fair is based on enormous learned wisdom through trial and error and precisely why it’s so labor intensive and plus, there was typically someone in the family or group where such preparations was job number one.

So, with the paradigm shifting work of RN et al on resistant starch and probiotics it’s starting to look like Paleo 1.0 was really all about treating the symptoms of a damaged microbiome; albeit helpful, it was never going to fix the root cause of so many modern illnesses. I now have serious hope that a sound model of human nutrition and digestion is being created that will significantly help the health of the vast majority of people.

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I wish I could tell everyone contemplating starting the paleo diet to include 1/2 to 1 pound of cooked/cooled/reheated (or cold) rice, beans, potatoes every day.

The only ‘carbs’ I won’t eat are wheat flour and sugar over a few grams a day. I still have a hard time eating any gluten free snacks or desserts. Most gluten free stuff looks just as bad as regular old stuff. I try to stay away from processed anything, especially if the ingredients list a bunch of oils and chemicals.

Yes, you can only go so far eliminating, eliminating…’oh, that causes this…ELIMINATE it!’ And in “Paleo 2.0” for lack of a better descriptive (and that is not a reference to Harris), what are these all being replaced with? “Paleo” snacks and baked goods, predominately made with concentrated n-6 PUFA nut meals.

Yeah, I took a look at the fatty acid ratios of black eye peas today. Omega 6:3 = 2:1. Good. Combine with fatty fish and it’s very good. Those dishes Marie referenced yesterday are ideal. Probably end up with a 1:1 ratio.

Just got back from local Greek restaurant, Bobby’s. Had rare lamb chops, a pile of rice, a pile of potatoes, and a pile of carrots with a bowl leek and bean soup. Ate everything they brought except for the garlic bread. I remember ordering this same meal a couple years ago and leaving the rice and spuds–what a joke!

Bifcus, those are good too. I found some spaghetti with a mix buckwheat – sweet potatoe. But I can find 100% BW as well.

@gabriella: you live in Japan ? Sorry, I know nothing. Maybe you can find buckwheat groats ? Soak them and make kasha, it is also a great way to eat BW. But the best for taste is of course the “galette bretonne” with ham, cheese, egg on top, and an apple cider “bolée” :) Add a green salad on the side, with a nice vinegar based dressing, and you have a complete meal!

I lived in Brittany for 2 years and dined weekly on the galettes made of buckwheat. Upon returning to the US, I tried to recreate my dining experiences by making galettes. They weren’t very pretty but not bad. Since then I have decided dosas are easier for me but a bit time consuming but well worth the effort. Plus the parboiled rice and fermentation of both rice and lentils.

Chick pea flatbreads (Socca):
Mix chick pea flour with water until you get the consistency of heavy cream (You can mix in gluten free flour if you want a lighter flatbread). Soak at least overnight (you can keep the batter on your countertop for a few days – it gradually acquires a sourdough fermentation). Add salt and any spices or herbs you like. Heat a little fat in your frying pan and pour some of the batter in. Swirl it around to make a thin pancake. Flip after a few minutes to cook on the other side. Your guts will thank you for this delicious crispy treat.

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I learn a lot here, and I’m pretty sold this is the way to eat for long-term health. However, for those needing to lose substantial weight (for me at least 30), wouldn’t a whole food, paleo, LC approach still be the way to go (with RS supplementation, of course) to drop a significant portion of the needed weight at first? Or, since I know calories do count, would a restricted calorie form of eating this way now be the recommended path? Thanks in advance.

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Totally individual I think. Sure, there have been people who’ve taken LC or VLC all the way to their goal. I wouldn’t know numbers but my rough sense is that most people, especially 40+, seem to “stall 10-30+ pounds from goal. I think it’s because people fall for the notion that if you just keep carbs low enough, calories don’t matter. I think the far simpler explanation is that going LC is more satiating, and people naturally eat fewer calories and guess what that comes out to? Equivalent to their average energy needs at a mass that’s 10-30+ pounds from goal.

So, it should be no mystery why they lost the weight, nor any mystery of why they “stalled.”

The rub is that I suspect that on an LC or VLC diet that brings on physiological insulin resistance, kinda like a starvation metabolism, it’s very difficult for many to reduce overall average calories to the level they need to drop those last pounds and this is exactly where adding in the starches help for me, lots of PHD folks, and lots of folks who’ve been reporting here even going was back to the potato hack days, before RS.

But it’s tough to get people to even try, because in their minds, it was cutting carbs that lost the weight, how could adding starches like rice, potatoes and legumes help them to lose that last bit (in addition to rectifying so many health problems chronic VLCers report). More likely, it was that cutting carbs got them to focus on higher quality foods, so they were more nourished, ate less, and the energy deficit was made up for my their own body fat. Notice how many feel so great, right up to the point where they’re not losing body fat.

Well, then they’re going only on dietary intake, it sucks, they’re hungry and cold, have bad bathroom issues, feel tired and lethargic, etc.

Up to you, but I know I’be trying to target 100-150g of net carbs from cooked, cooled and reheated rice, potatoes, legumes (to maximize RS), and some fruit; and eat as many non-starchy plants as you like. Stop going hog wild on added fat like it’s some cure all, because it’s not and that’s just fucktard. Go with 6-8 oz portions of protein rather than 12-16+. However, if you do go LC, 50g carbs or less, then still keep the _added_ fat low, but really max out on the protein. This will at least approximate what the Inuit actually do, rather than all the bogus folklore.

And consider some supplemental RS and the SBO Probiotics, which you can find out all about under the Resistant Starch link on the menu.

I would be really interested to hear more about the health problems VCLers had. I mentioned this on MDA’s website too, but for the past two years I have suffered badly with sinus problems, dry irritated eyes and throat (constant sticky mucus at back of throat) and also, don’t know if connected, but have had both cervical and nasal polyps (apparently polyps only found on mucus membranes). I felt absolutely fine up to when my weight was at its lowest (tbh probably a bit too low). Plus, I had started to feel cold and lethargic, despite sleeping 8 or 9 hours like a log. I’ve only been doing the resistant starch, (a tablespoon of PS here and there, cooked and cooled rice, potatoes and rice noodles for lunch and dinner) a couple of weeks and have already put on 6 pounds and feel warmer already. Will be interested to see what happens with my mucus problems (read about this on Perfect Health Diet website, dangers of vlc diets).

“Stop going hog wild on added fat.” True dat. I have an online buddy who was so frustrated that she couldn’t lose more weight. Breakfast for her was bulletproof coffee with a stick (yes, an entire stick) of butter. She added extra fat to everything, thinking “calories don’t matter” as long as you’re eating leto. Nobody could tell her differently.

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This has zero to do with offering anything. I have no idea what you’re talking about in terms of what was offered, but the WP plugin Thoughtful Comments is the very best, all around (with tradeoffs). I even tried Disqus recently. It’s a nightmare. May be good for someone who doesn’t do high traffic, but basically, they want your data to market with and you have zero options. Can’t even set a nesting level, or none at all.

Eventually, the blog will be completely redesigned. I don’t want to spend tons now, painting a house I’ll be tearing down.

Content is 99%. I think I have that covered. I’m not going to spend 20% of my time fucking around with 1%. Just doesn’t happen.

“Brailsford believed in a concept that he referred to as the “aggregation of marginal gains.” He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.” His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement.”

“”We’ve got this saying, ‘performance by the aggregation of marginal gains,'” Brailsford continued. “It means taking the 1% from everything you do; finding a 1% margin for improvement in everything you do. That’s what we try to do from the mechanics upwards.”

I’ll keep it in mind for when commenting on my blog becomes a competitive race.

Of course, that’s kinda what competition is all about. The differences among top competitors are all in the 1% margin, or maybe even .001% margin (watch the men’s downhill) so yes, to be at the top means that 1% is the most important because 99% is already covered.

While I have been paleo/primal inclined for the last five or six years I have developed a more flexible approach to eating. In fact, our evolution in eating has been pretty similar as I now eat rice, beans, and potatoes. I still seem to have a problem with some kinds of dairy and gluten.

I use rice noodles quite a bit as a gluten free pasta alternative, or in more Asian-inspired noodle dishes.

These are traditionally made with tapioca starch and rice flour, but I have noticed that most brands for sale here in Taiwan use corn starch instead of tapioca.

Seems like traditional rice noodles would be a pretty good source of resistant starch when eaten cool.

Do you have any opinions about corn starch? Do you think it is best avoided or relatively benign?

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The problem with corn starch, as far as I can see, is corn. Often GMO crap. You’ve got to find certified organic corn based product because even though the starch may not be a health concern (I said “may not” …), buying these products supports GMO stuff. Try to find stuff without corn based stuff if you can (that’s my opinion only).

Richard, thanks for the the thoughtful compilation in response my questions. I know the info in your answer was already all over the blog. I just hadn’t seen “Ok, a real food diet with good starches seems to be optimal for long-term health, but is it the way to go in order to achieve substantial weight loss?” –tackled directly. I appreciate it.

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The classic Spanish dish Tortilla Espanola is a perfect example of good flexible eating too – eggs, potatoes, onions, and olive oil. Refrigerate overnight and it’s a perfect meal for a human and its bugs.

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Where have you been, Jane? I’ve been featuring white rice, PHD style for a LONG time. I cook mine in chicken stock. Moreover, almost all the white rice we eat around here is cooled and reheated so as to increase RS (again, where have you been?). There’s this too, in terms of nutrients.

In terms of the bread, it’s primarily potato and tapioca starch, gluten free, does me zero harm and I can put whatever nutrient density I want, like pate or liverwurst, or sardines or even canned oysters or cod livers (very tasty).

Just realised that parboiled rice is called “easy cook” rice in the UK. Richard, I’m still a bit worried about reheating and not destroying the RS. I warmed up rice in the oven on 150 centigrade for 15 mins, is this too much? I’m assuming that doing roast potatoes, using cooled ones, on 180 centigrade for 30 minutes is too much? Am having a mix of cold and reheated at the mo, just to be sure.

Jane seems to be having trouble posting comments under the new design (anyone else? please let me know, if so). So posting her reply for her:

~~~

Where have I been? Around, watching what you do. Trying to help, believe it or not.
The bread. You say it’s primarily potato and tapioca starch, which are both very low in micronutrients. What’s the point of having no gluten if it has nothing else much? You need micronutrients to process the gluten, so this bread is self defeating. Actually it also has brown rice flour, so it could be worse.

Pancit noodles. Made from white rice, I imagine. Tell me it ain’t so.

Parboiled rice. Parboiling increases vitamins but not minerals, at least not magnesium, as you yourself have pointed out. The almost complete removal of magnesium from white rice is possibly the worst thing about it. This is NOT safe starch.

It doesn’t really work to eat food which has had micronutrients removed and fill the gaps with supplements. They are often the wrong ones in the wrong amounts, and in any case your gut bacteria evolved eating whole foods, not refined foods + supplements. The whole point of your resistant starch project is to heal the gut microbiome, and it has to have the food it evolved eating. Bacteria need micronutrients to activate their enzymes just like we do.

Jane, I’m a big fan of nutrient density, which is why I strongly advocate liver, oysters, mussels, clams…and I even have tins of cod livers and they are yummy.

I did a whole chapter in v2.0 of my book about it, demonstrating that for 4 oz of beef liver, you need about 5 pounds of fruit to approximate the micro nutrition.

So, I’m about a balance now. Some food needs to be just pure, easy energy, about 30%, starches are key for that, and the rest is poor nutrient fat (but energy of a different sort) and various proteins and non starch veggies and whatever supplementation you do to round it out.

It’s working well for me. See my Facebook update where 15 pounds have gone away recently. I feel top notch, and for the first time in a long time.

I saved that pasta dish for last because not only was it my last meal (last evening), but I wanted to relay how it went. Since doing all the stuff with Resistant Starch and the Soil-Based Probiotics, I’ve done a few experiments both in terms of blood glucose (reported here) and heartburn tolerance, since others have reported such improvements over time [that’s me on both counts]. A couple of weeks back, I had some pizza & beer, sure to give me heartburn. Nothing. This was test number two, a pasta dish, probably the worst in terms of getting heartburn. In addition, I had half of that deviled egg app and one Perfect Manhattan, stirred, not shaken.

I waited for the inevitable nuclear heartburn to arrive (especially in combo with hard liquor), but it never did.

I’ve eaten wheat at every single meal for at least three weeks precisely to test if, as a doctor and I suspected, it was giving me the heartburn, since the worst episodes of that were after eating high-wheat meals; I didn’t respond to a PPI but did to an histamine H2-receptor (ranitidine) in large (up to 600 mg/day!) doses (which the doctor says has anti-histamine properties, and led her to suspect that’s why it was effective, but the PPI not); the traditional GERD triggers such as caffeine, acidic food, and the like didn’t affect me; and my mom had celiac disease proper.

The plan was at the end of a month, to test for gluten sensitivity.

But the plan has gone awry—stymied by resistant starch. My heartburn is much reduced as is my antacid dose—yesterday none again, not for the first time. After. Eating. Wheat. In. Quantity. At. Every. Single. Meal. For. Weeks.

About six weeks ago, I’d begun the raw potato starch, just a tablespoon on average per day. (I’ve since bumped it up as of two days ago, and added other things to my “Essential Slurry”.)

It appears the prebiotic has upped my Bifodobacteria and made me much, much less sensitive to gluten … as, unknown to me at the time, science has shown Bifodobacteria does.

So I will probably get a false negative result if and when I test for gluten sensitivity.

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Richard, you’re probably aware because you’re a Trader Joe’s aficionado like I am (I go 3 times a week, seriously), but recently they came out with a brown rice and quinoa fusilli pasta. I haven’t had a legitimate bowl of wheat pasta in over 3 years, but I have had TJ’s regular brown rice penne maybe once or twice a year. I decided to give this new pasta a shot on a whim. Man, it was great. Easily the best GF pasta I’ve ever had…and therefore the best pasta I’ve had in over 3 years. It held together perfectly and had an awesome al dente texture. I suggest you try it. I bought a second bag, though it’s been sitting in the pantry for over a month. I made 36 pork/veal/beef/hot sausage meatballs last night. Maybe it’s time for a second bag.

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Oh yum. This is the kind of food I aspire too. At my current level of wellness, I can’t do it. But RS is turning out to be a very helpful “supplement” food in that a “dose” of it helps keep me full and fed. I have been pretty much been living on a diet of nearly raw meat, eggs and RS/probiotics. And I’m making progress. My urine is bright yellow as if I were taking vitamins. I am thinking RS would do wonders for my elderly neighbor who drinks those dreadful Ensure shakes.

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So, basically, the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) minus wheat/gluten, after being cooked/cooled, skip the sugar!, is the way to go, huh? I’m fairly certain there are some in the anti-paleo-low-carb crowd who are laughing their asses off at all the resistant starch uproar of late and at all the former LC/VLC folks rubbing their hands together, while drooling and licking their lips at the new permission they are being given to eat starchy carbs again (turns out, it’s healthy! – don’t ya know!). Ah, to hell with them, anyway…pass me the Pad Thai, please.

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Udis bread and rice noodles are crap processed food. They are not paleo in any way, shape or form (nor LC, but duh, right?). And they are not the most natural, optimal sources of RS, are they? My point is that it seems you’re pushing the boundaries. With that said, I’ve enjoyed a UDIS white bread, toasted sammi and a bowl of Pho with noodles myself and can’t imagine a life so rigid as to forego every modern food, processed or otherwise. Sisson’s rule applies to me – 80/20 – so, if it works, it works. I’m simply making an observation.

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Who, exactly asked for your opinion? Certainly not I, nor anyone in comments i’ve seen and there are previous posts with hundreds of commenters who use both and they’re happy.

What’s really interesting though, is that on a psychological level, this just bugs the shit out of you. Doesn’t it? So, who has the real problem, TeeDee?

” They are not paleo in any way, shape or form”

Are you telling us something you think we already don’t know, are you Moses coming down from the mountaintops with stone tablets inscribed by doG almighty, or it is just Occam’s Razor way simpler than that and you just have a basic inability to think for yourself and form your own life way?

…And then you go on to backtrack in the rest of the comment. Sorry, but when you did that, you’d have been better advised to just delete and start over.

It’s too bad that you’re so knee-jerk defensive, Richard. I’ve been reading your website and listening to you with an open mind since last year. I’m was merely pointing out that it seems you’re stepping farther and farther out of boundary of what is intrinsic to the true paleo lifestyle and diet. Whether some others wish to go there with you or not doesn’t make it suddenly the new paleo norm (or supported by any fact). There is simply no logic in that.

Whether anyone asked for my opinion or not, I didn’t fear given it – I certainly didn’t expect to have you come back at me with such bite. I guess one must comment in agreement of you on here or we’re parting the Red Sea and something about God and what, what, huh?

I in no way back tracked in either of my comments. I made an observation. In many ways, I’m in agreement with you, something I guess you missed. But, never mind. You don’t need to show me the door. I’ll gladly take my opinions elsewhere. You aren’t any real (or obviously, mature) authority in the community even if you do have a rabid group of supporters. They can continue to stroke your ego and calm your temper.

Best of luck!

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” You aren’t any real (or obviously, mature) authority in the community even if you do have a rabid group of supporters. They can continue to stroke your ego and calm your temper. ”

That I find rather caricatural.

RN is just a blogger, people comment on his blogging. That’s all there is. I agree that he is far from being dogmatic about a paleo approach, but I think it is because “paleo” is a changing concept as more info and analyses are emerging. None of us were living at paleo times, so anything someone says must be taken with a bit of distance and a critical mind. Moreover, we don’t live in paleo times, we have our own food paradigms, for better or for worse and it would be a little silly to discard the good, based on a somewhat blurry picture of what our paleo ancestors ate (our environment has changed so much, it would be nigh impossible to recreate their dietary conditions).

Whatever RN says, he is no guru, no authority, just a guy who happens to blog his thinking about things. And like with everyone else, we don’t necessarily have to be friends or even hang out together because we happen to share similar ideas. We’re all just “particles” interacting in a chaotic way …

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I'm Richard Nikoley. Free the Animal began in 2003 and as of 2018, contains over 4,600 posts and 110,000 comments from readers. I cover a lot of ground, blogging what I wish...from health, diet, and lifestyle to philosophy, politics, social issues, and cryptocurrency. I celebrate the audacity and hubris to live by your own exclusive authority and take your own chances in life. [Read more...]

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